MTN Nigeria, yesterday, disclosed that the sealing of its facilities in Ondo by the State Government would negatively impact on the quality of its service in the state and its environs.
The telecoms operator said millions of subscribers would be affected by the closure.
It would be recalled that the Ondo State Government, acting on a court order, on December 23, 2015 sealed MTN’s Base Transmission Stations (BTS) in the state over tax-related issues.
The telecoms firm was alleged to be owing Ondo State Board of Internal Revenue Service (OSBIRS) N485.5 million in pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) deductions, withholding tax (WHT), development levy, business premises tax and education endowment tax.
Reacting to the closure of its BTS in a statement issued by its corporate communications executive, Amina Oyagbola, on Tuesday, MTN Nigeria said that services that will be affected by the development comprised voice and data services, voice traffic across other operators and international traffic, enterprise data service to third-party clients (mostly banks and other corporate clients), which may, in turn, impact services such as ATMs, POS and others.
“There will be poor or total loss of network coverage for all MTN subscribers in Ondo as the sealing of facilities means that service providers will not be able to carry out routine maintenance work or refuel the generators servicing the base transceiver stations (BTS’). In addition, a major hub site for both fibre and microwave transmission which connects the north, south and east will be affected, leading to loss of services in the whole of Ekiti State, as well as parts of Edo and Niger states”, the statement said.
